Creator Of Billboard-Charting AI Artist Xania Monet Reveals Herself: “I Look At Her As A Real Person”

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https://www.stereogum.com/2328844/creat ... rson/news/

AI musicians are here. They are among us. In a recent article, Billboard called attention to a number of AI artists across a bunch of different genres who have appeared on various different niche Billboard charts — inhuman creations with names like ChildPets Galore, Unbound Music, Enlly Blue. Breaking Rust, and BOI WHAT. (A lot of them seem to operate in the contemporary Christian space, which is sort of interesting when you consider that these things are inherently godless just by virtue of their existence.) The most prominent of those artists is the fake R&B singer Xania Monet, who appears to be the first AI-generated artist to appear on any Billboard airplay chart. Yesterday, Xania Monet’s creator appeared on CBS This Morning to discuss her enterprise.

The person behind Xania Monet is a Mississippi-based songwriter named Telisha “Nikki” Jones. Jones created Monet as a digital avatar when she was teaching herself to use AI four months ago. Since September, that avatar has appeard on charts like Hot Gospel Songs, Hot R&B Songs, and Emerging Artists, and the single “How Was I Supposed To Know?” went to #1 on the R&B Digital Song Sales. Most tellingly, “How Was I Supposed To Know?” has also appeared on the Adult R&B Airplay chart, which apparently makes it the first AI artist to appear on any radio airplay chart, even if it’s an extremely specific one with only a small number of reporting stations.

Gayle King sat down with Telisha “Nikki” Jones on yesterday’s episode of CBS This Morning, and Jones talked about her creative process. She’s been writing poems for years, documenting her own experiences and those of her friends and family members. She copy-pastes those poems into Suno, selects a bunch of different prompts, and lets the computer make the song. Sometimes, she has to hit refresh a bunch of times until she lands on one that she likes. (The interview doesn’t get into the production of Xania Monet’s videos, which are also AI-generated.)

According to Billboard, this led to a bidding war and a multimillion-dollar deal with Hallwood Media, a new company led by former Geffen president Neil Jacobson. Variety reports that Hallwood also recently signed Imoliver, which the company calls “the most-streamed creator on AI music generation platform Suno.” Hallwood seems to be working to corner a nasty little market.

In her interview with Gayle King, Telisha “Nikki” Jones says, “Xania is an extension of me, so I look at her as a real person.” When asked about whether her process is a “shortcut,” Jones says, “I wouldn’t call it a shortcut because I still put in the work. And any time something new comes about and it challenges the norm and challenges what we’re used to, you’re going to get strong reactions behind it. And I just feel like AI is the new era that we’re in, and I look at it as a tool, as a instrument, utilize it.”



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[NinaFromCanadaEh]

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[NinaFromCanadaEh]

https://www.cp24.com/news/entertainment ... -the-last/

Xania Monet is the first AI-powered artist to debut on a Billboard airplay chart, but she likely won’t be the last

Artificial intelligence is everywhere and the music charts are no different.

According to Billboard, an AI singer named Xania Monet is “the first known AI artist to earn enough radio airplay to debut on a Billboard radio chart.”

So far, Monet has appeared on multiple Billboard charts since first releasing a song in summer 2025, including the Hot Gospel Songs (for her song “Let Go, Let God”) and the Hot R&B Songs chart (for her song “How Was I Supposed to Know”), according to the publication.


Now, she’s been signed to a multimillion-dollar record deal with Hallwood Media after what Billboard called “a bidding war.”

Hollywood has long been worried about the ramifications of AI performers taking work from humans. (See the recent controversy over AI actress Tilly Norwood.) But as loud as the concerns might be, AI continues to grow in the arts.

With more than 146,000 followers on Instagram alone, Monet is proof that consumers are increasingly open to the idea, even if the industry is riled by it.

Monet’s Apple Music artist profile explains that Monet is “an Al figure presented as a contemporary R&B vocalist in the highly expressive, church-bred, down-to-earth vein of Keyshia Cole, K. Michelle, and Muni Long.”


Monet was designed by Telisha Nikki Jones, a poet from Mississippi who writes the lyrics Monet is seen performing with help from Suno, “a generative artificial intelligence music creation program,” the bio explains.

Monet released a full-length album “Unfolded” in August, which had 24 songs. A seven-track EP, “Pieces Left Behind,” followed in September.

A press release from Monet’s representative touted the AI singer’s “smooth, soulful sound” and “human-like delivery.” But Romel Murphy, who says he’s Monet’s manager and spoke with CNN’s Victor Blackwell, insisted that there is no intent to replace human singers and songwriters.

“AI doesn’t replace the artist. That’s not our goal at all. It doesn’t diminish the creativity and doesn’t take away from the human experience,” he said. “It’s a new frontier and like anything would change some people are receptive and some people are apprehensive.”

Billboard recently reported that “in just the past few months, at least six AI or AI-assisted artists have debuted on various Billboard rankings.”

“That figure could be higher, as it’s become increasingly difficult to tell who or what is powered by AI — and to what extent,” according to the publication. “Many of these charting projects, whose music spans every genre from gospel to rock to country, also arrive with anonymous or mysterious origins.”

Murphy doesn’t appear to see an issue and likens it all to the music of Michael Jackson and Prince, who died in 2009 and 2016 respectively.

“They both have music catalogs that are expanding decades to this day. Youth are still listening to those songs and they’re no longer with us and they’re connected to their music,” Murphy said. “So it is the music because they don’t have the history of the contact or the concert live field, but they still love those songs. Music has to evolve as well.”

“We just have to keep the integrity and be intentional about the realness of it and push the music to the world,” he added.

CNN has reached out to Monet’s representative for comment.

Meanwhile, working musicians are – as expected– troubled.

“There is an AI R&B artist who just signed a multimillion-dollar deal … and the person is doing none of the work,” Kehlani said of Monet in a now-deleted video posted to TikTok. “This is so beyond out of our control.”

The human singer added: “Nothing and no one on Earth will ever be able to justify AI to me.”

ai generated image of an ai generated voice: